Royal House representatives and the Romanian state negotiation commission agreed upon extending for another three years the rental contract for Peles Castle, Culture Minister Kelemen Hunor announced in a press conference yesterday.
“We had a Governmental mandate to negotiate with the Royal House over extending the rental contract. Last week, we held a second meeting with the representatives of the Royal House and agreed to expand the rental contract by three years. We notified the premier during yesterday’s (Wednesday’s) Cabinet meeting and I hope we will get to sign the contract in a few days,” said the Culture minister, adding that both Castle and Museum are safe.
Negotiations between King Michael – who was returned the castle in 2007 – and the Romanian state, paying a worth RON 52,000 monthly rent to further hold the exhibit collections of Peles and Pelisor, were carried on in February, as the accord signed three years ago was due to end in March.
Upon being named culture minister, Kelemen implied the possibility of the state purchasing the castle, but the Royal House did not submit any formal notification that it would be willing to sell it.
The municipality of Sinaia recently asked the Government to get involved in the Peles Museum takeover, and announced a public campaign in support of this move. In their turn, the parliamentarians and the women’s organization of PSD Bucharest expressed their intention to launch, in the near future, a telethon to save Peles Castle from sale, Social-Democrat Deputy Aura Vasile announced.
At the retrocession moment in 2007, media sources put a possible purchase of Peles Castle by the Romanian state at the price of EUR 30 M.
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